This article was extraordinarily close to being the most exciting Golfer’s Diary of all time (insert joke about it being a low bar to clear here).

Here’s the story: My friend Matt invited me to play in the 29th Annual Wyoming Cup Classic Golf Tournament at Silver Lake Country Club in Perry, NY (just outside Warsaw) on Thursday. He’s a nurse anesthetist and his company — Niagara Frontier Anesthesia, for what it’s worth — sponsored a team in the event.

Like a lot of tournaments, there was a specific hole (usually one of the more difficult par 3 holes) on which a hole-in-one wins you a free car. Well, despite playing pretty poorly for several holes leading up to this one, I nearly hit the shot of a lifetime. The hole was about 200 yards long, so I used my hybrid (a club that’s a combination of an iron and a fairway wood — thanks for the email, John). From the tee box, it looked awfully good. When we got up to the green, the women volunteers were going wild saying my ball rolled within inches of the cup.

The next tee box was right behind the green and one of the guys in that group (who incidentally seemed to be completely devoid of personality in several conversations prior to this) also made a point to excitedly tell me just how close I was to a hole-in-one and a free car on that shot.

During the very early stages as a golfer, I saw two aces in back-to-back rounds. My friend Jack sank his tee shot on No. 4 at Pinehurst Golf Club in Westfield. The next time I played was in a tournament at Cassadaga Country Club and Nolan Swanson (owner of Pinehurst, coincidentally) somehow aced No. 5, which is a par 4! That’s it. I haven’t even seen anyone come particularly close since. Personally, I’ve played hundreds of par 3 holes and I’ve never hit a shot that I thought had a legitimate chance of going in the cup. Until this one, that is.

While I wasn’t able to connect on the shot to end all shots, I was able to turn it around for a natural birdie, which felt good, but obviously not as good as driving a new car home to the wife and kids would have.

That shot was just one highlight in a day filled with them. However, this particular day of golf might have been the most enjoyable round I’ve ever played. Matt has been my best friend since elementary school, so obviously I enjoy his company. Our team also included Ed (Matt’s boss) and Erin (Ed’s sister). What a wonderful pair of people! The right group sure can make or break a round of golf, can’t it?

Another huge highlight was simply the course. I had never played at Silver Lake Country Club before, but I would go back in a second. It reminded me quite a bit of Tri County Country Club in Forestville. SLCC was just perfect. The greens were unbelievable. The fairways were possibly the best I’ve ever hit from. The scenery was lovely. There just aren’t enough positive adjectives to describe this course. Not only that, but the dining area and the bar were great, too. After playing SLCC, I can now say that I believe in love at first sight. It’s not terribly local to the OBSERVER’s distribution area (it took me a little over an hour and a half to get there), but if you want to experience a new, wonderful course, I can’t recommend SLCC enough.

In the previous tournament I played in, I mentioned that my team didn’t exactly make the best team. What I mean is that we all did certain things well and then all struggled in the same areas. That doesn’t exactly fly in a scramble. Matt, Ed, Erin and I, however, were like a well-oiled machine. There was a rule about using each team member’s drive at least twice. We had that after just 10 holes. Erin didn’t mind at all being the guinea pig so that the rest of the team could get a read on putts. Ed’s wedge game was getting us on the green every time. If I hit a bad shot, I had 100% confidence that someone else was going to get the job done.

Matt and I had played a practice round at Rosebrook Golf Course in Silver Creek on Sunday. Matt hadn’t played at all in 2019 and I didn’t want him to go into the tournament completely cold. On Sunday, he was pretty bad. It looked like he hadn’t played in a year, which he hadn’t. In the tournament, however, he was striking the ball roughly 1,000 times better. It was good to see. I know how frustrating it can be to hit the ball horribly all day. But when everyone is hitting the ball pretty well, it makes for some fun times.

Matt provided one of the best shots of the day. We had been putting for birdie but missed on each of our first five holes. Even par is good, but not good enough. We wanted some birdies! On our sixth hole, we actually weren’t putting for birdie as each of us missed the green on our second shots. Ed, Erin and I all chipped past the cup and weren’t even particularly close. When Matt hit his shot I almost turned away to pick up my putter because he hit it too hard. Well, his ball slammed into the pin and dropped into the cup for our first birdie on the day.

We finished the day four-under, I believe, which we were happy with.

It was an exceptionally enjoyable day at a positively beautiful course with amazing people. That is what golf is all about.

Until next time, golf is great. Go get some.